11.25.2004
江苏'04
18/11-24/11
Setting off!
So off we went on the 1st day, my very volatile stomach kicked up a fuss again and I had to go to the toilet 4 times! Heng there are so many toilets at Changi Airport...The plane ride was uneventful and the dinner with my uncle's friends were a bit…awkward, but yum the food was great!
And this is what we found in our hotel room, among other interesting stuff haha!
Hahah repair what hurr??
Took lots of pictures of ZJ with the arty farty aka nude picture hanging on the wall, but they all turned out horrible. In the end I deleted those pics to save memory space. But I still have this!
Lousy Joshua aren’t you happy your cap was put to use????
昆山
Most of the second day was spent on waiting around for Gu Zhong to arrive from the far-away 天津. So we spent the morning in a little park taking lots of meaningless pictures of birds and a mosque-lookalike-building.
Guess the Chinese idiom? No prizes though!
When GZ finally came we headed for 亭林园, where we panted up a small little lousy hill… After coming down we chanced upon a small door and Yiru got these:
Last destination of the day was 水乡
We explored lots of buildings of old and museum displays. Dear PT friends, identify the pedicle and the lamina and whatnot on the vertebra of this ox.
Had a bombastic lunch where Yiru hit a fly into ZJ’s soup. No picture was taken!
Anybody care to tell me what the third word from the top is??
We had the famous 大闸蟹 that evening! I had a most difficult time getting the meat. Wah really dont see how it's worth it to waste so much effort to get so little meat. Obviously we could'nt take any pictures cos our hands were full with crab hairs, legs, shell....etc etc
苏州
虎丘...
Finally, a picture of the 3 of us!
Looking down a well... I dont know why we were so excited at seeing a well, but it was the first of many. We stopped goggling over wells soon after. See the reflection of ZJ’s hand and her camera??
After the waiting around on the 2nd day, we were relaxed and just strolled around 虎丘 like ah gongs and ah mahs. Took lots of pictures of maple leaves but they were all brown and small (the leaves i mean). Cousin 博勋 attempted to the create a leave rain for an autumn effect but i failed to capture it nicely. =( Then Yiru fell and sprained her little finger while attempting to cross a small stream on some stepping stones! (thereby conveniently skipping the 1st Saturday orchestra practice after we came back)
Seeing a bamboo forest reminded us of 卧虎藏龙 and made us dream of being swordswomen, hence:
Identify the heroes??
Some hilarious signs we found in the park:
拙政园...
We saw this super adorable kid almost as soon as we stepped into 拙政园!! He had super rosy cheeks, super small hands, was dressed up into a super small dumpling and was clutching a huge rosy apple. (then you could see the tiny teeth marks he left on the fruit through his various attempts to take a bite out of it) Awww… But when I was trying to get the little guy to aim a smile in my direction for a beautiful picture, he had to turn around and ogle ZJ instead. Darn
Typical scenery seen there, but oh how pretty!
3 headless guys!
Some more hilarious signs…
And this is my first photo of 枫叶 that look reasonably...ok
无锡
Finally we left the 昆山 hotel and headed for 无锡!!! Yea for stories on how I destroyed toilets you can refer to ZJ’s blog! (ps ZJ and Yiru: My uncle says it’s okay to throw tissue paper down toilet bowls!!! So what did we see in the waste paper baskets hurr? The toilet bowl in our hotel room was due for a choke le la.)
According to my uncle, 无锡 is being developed as a 影城, sort of like Hollywood (or Bollywood). We went to 双城，which is made up of 水浒（城） and 三国（城）. Then me and ZJ got shouted at when we took pictures of a filming crew.
Hah and GZ suggested that the 3 of us become sworn sisters at this place, (where 刘备，张飞，and 关羽 were supposed to become sworn brothers) but nobody was in for it. And I was horrified at the thought of becoming big sister to Yiru and ZJ. Does not work!!!! We still took a picture though.
The only thing good about going to 双城 was that we managed to see some quirky stuff, such as these whistles.
You would’nt believe it. After getting out of 双城 we obviously were hungry. But the waitress at 1st restaurant we went to told us that they had knocked off. Huh? The time was about 2+ pm. But as the 2nd and 3rd place we went to told us the same thing, we realized that all restaurants in the city closed after 2pm, and it was a Sunday!!! We finally managed to find a place where the boss was desperate enough for business. This one guy did all the cooking and serving plus all saikang!! And the meal only cost about RMB100 for 7 persons. Cool. And yes the food was good!
Since we had no time for 太湖 after the long search for food, we had to go to 蠡园， (which is supposedly where 西施 retired to). As ZJ mentioned, the 2 of us felt adventurous and tried on traditional costumes. All I can say is I prefer the 彝族装 I wore in 云南. Cos this 回族装 made me look very weird!! And of cos I shall not embarrass myself by posting those ridiculous photos of me and my dead fish eyes.
After getting over that, it was time for sunset already! I then started fiddling with the different camera modes.
It is the same sunset.
We managed to find a hotel with Internet service! Much to the delight of 博勋. (At least we did not have to settle for the pok motel where i destroyed one of the cubicle walls...)
太湖 and 锡山公园
In the morning we went to this park which was really a park park, for people to go exercise and stuff. Yiru mentioned that we must look terribly out of place because
1) We were not elderly
2) We did not walk backwards
Took a cable car ride up a hill, but we were the only ones!
The rest of the ah gongs and ah mahs made the trip on foot. *guilty* On the hill we saw lots of interesting people like a beggar who looked extremely well-fed, a guy exercised by throwing this huge stone from one hand to the other, and another who exercised his legs by scissor-kicking while hanging on to a tree branch. After a long and ardous climb to another peak on the hill, we saw a pok looking toilet and a very pok tea house. Merh
Saw 天下第二泉, but it was such a paltry looking well Yiru wondered how 二泉映月 came about! It was impossible to take a decent photo of the spring cos the walls around it were too high and i had to tip-toe to see the spring as it is..
Got some more 枫叶, got improve anot???
We finally got to 太湖 after 2 days of talking about it. But it was a pity, because we only got to explore a tiny island on the lake but not the main peninsula! (The sun sets at 5pm…..Merh)
Got to see this temple for lovebirds on the island:
So while ZJ and I pray for true love to find us in year 2005……...
The 2 of them have already found theirs hahaha!!
As the sun was setting....
back to 上海!!
The whole of the days was spent browsing through VCDs CDs books and scores... had dinner at a restaurant that served funny things like 肉骨茶 with 油条. As we were finishing our dinner some singers came in to entertain us. Before i knew it i was invited out of my seat to dance to Top Of the World. There goes my first dance...!!
and of cos we could'nt miss 上海滩 at night!!! took lots of shaky photos that looked the same cos i had battery to spare.
this is my best picture of 明珠塔:
Plus others....
The last picture was suggested by 博勋... hurr not bad he has an eye for good angles!but too bad,it's still shaky
Coming back
Morning was spent napping and snoozing cos we had nowhere to go...
I was sweating like a pig like 1/2 hour after stepping out of Changi Airport!! The thing i'll miss most about 江苏 would be the weather, though definitely not the smoke!!!Labels: jiangsu, kunshan, suzhou, travel, wuxi
